Abstract: Modern states in East Asia were formed out of traditional
and colonial empires about 200 years after their European counterparts
and 100 years after Latin American states. While modern East Asian
states are much younger, cohesive and effective states are the norm in
East Asia just as fragile and ineffective states are in Latin America.
What explains East Asia's more advanced level of state development
despite its later entrance into modernity? Based on four cases (China,
South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam), this paper argues that war, capital
and elite support for financing state building are not central to the
postcolonial growth of cohesive states in East Asia. Rather,
structural violence, which is violence motivated by ideologies and
executed systematically with the goal of establishing long-term
ideological and political hegemony, was the primary cause of cohesive
states in the East Asian context.

Bio: Tuong Vu is Visiting Research Fellow, Princeton Institute for
International and Regional Studies, Princeton University, and
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of
Oregon. His book, Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam,
China, and Indonesia (Cambridge, 2010) was selected by Asia Society as
a 2011 Bernard Schwartz Award Honorable Mention. See Dr. Tuong Vu full page.

This film reveals contemporary Vietnamese culture in the city of Philadelphia through fleeting glances and artistic expressions. Unlike many conventional documentary films, it does not provide a overriding narrative or linear story, instead, it offers viewers a unique and informative window to Vietnamese food, art, culture, and community in a cinematic style employing both Cinéma vérité and Direct Cinema or "passive" camerawork. First engaging in extensive research and ethnography, the filmmakers then set out to document the prevalent features of Vietnamese culture that have been brought to this western city and show how they are thriving not only among Vietnamese immigrants, but also with native Philadelphians. Offering portraits of people engaging in a friendly and candid manner, the film shows that some of the most ordinary interactions can be culturally informative, inspirational, and enlightening.

This film proves very useful for those teaching and/or interested in the Vietnamese diaspora, cross cultural exchange, experimental documentary filmmaking, and Philadelphian society. It also opens up avenues for discussion of Eastern and Western cultural intersections, cultural preservation, and diaspora community development.

"Le
Duan and the Political Struggle for Peace in Vietnam"
Sophie Quinn JudgeAbstract
>>

"The story of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict in Vietnam often ignores the complex politics of Vietnam, south and north. This talk will focus on Vietnamese attempts to neutralize the South, starting with the post-Geneva era, extending to the DRV [Democratic Republic of Vietnam] diplomacy of 1962 and finally, the interegnum of General Dương Văn Minh in 1963. Although Lê Duẩn is known as the major promoter of military struggle after 1954, new information from a Vietnamese study of the Resistance in the Western Mekong Delta shows Lê Duẩn as a skilfull political organizer in the months after the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam. He hoped to maintain communist influence in the south by ordering the infiltration of southern revolutionaries into the local government militias and armed forces of the religious sects after 1954. The Cao Đàis who took refuge in Phnom Penh in 1955, after Diệm's attack on their Tây Ninh base, joined a campaign organized by expatriate Vietnamese to call for a neutral South Vietnam. Their relations with the southern communists is one question this talk will explore. The NLF [National Liberation Front of South Vietnam] program of 1960 and a DRV diplomatic proposal, designed by Lê Duẩn in 1962, continued to advocate a neutral South Vietnam. The final point of this talk will examine the popularity of the neutral idea within South Vietnam and efforts by Gen. Minh to move from military to political competition."

Highlighting Research from the Center for Vietnamese Philosophy, Culture & SocietyThis panel will highlight three research projects. The first (Goyette) concerns research on the growing
private sector in Vietnamese higher education and its effects on who has access to post-secondary
education. The second (Quinn-Judge) explores the ideas and careers of Vietnamese leaders who
advocated a peaceful, negotiated solution to a colonial war that grew into a civil war and one of the
bitterest conflicts of the Cold War. The third (Ngô Thanh Nhàn) describes a project which digitizes
and preserves the very important endangered documents in the Vietnamese ideographic Nom script.

The Center for Vietnamese Philosophy, Culture & Society of Temple University will host the first conference on Vietnamese Nôm studies. Nôm studies can be tentatively thought of as multi-disciplinary research in Vietnamese studies recorded in the ideographic script called chữ Nôm, which was used in Vietnam from the tenth century to the 1920's. The Conference will feature leading Nôm scholars and researchers from the U.S., Vietnam, Canada, and France. Click here for further information on the Conference.

The October 2006 Conference

The Temple Vietnam Center held a conference titled, “Going with the Past: Vietnamese Traditional Culture in Contemporary Society” on October 6th and 7th, 2006. The conference featured a unique combination of presenters from Vietnam, Canada and the U.S. including a team from the Institute of Culture and Information in Hanoi and Hue. Click her for further information on the conference.

The June 2005 Conference on Vietnamese Philosophy

"Perspectives on Vietnamese Philosophy" On June 22, 2005, the Center sponsored a seminar on Vietnamese Philosophy covering two main subjects: "Distinctive Features of Vietnamese Philosophy" and "Vietnamese Perspectives on Truth, Falsehood, and Practive."The seminar featured prominent Vietnamese philosophers. Click here for further information on the conference.

The June 2005 Conference on Vietnamese History

"The Vietnam War 30 Years On" On June 20-21 , 2005, the Center sponsored a conference on the Vietnam/American War. The conference featured internationally renowned scholars, writers, and diplomats. Topics included the historiography of the war, the social history of the ARVN and the Vietnamese middle class, recent documentary evidence, alternative explanations for U.S. Vietnam policy, peace initiatives, and outstanding questions from both the American and Vietnamese perspectives. Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy. Click here for further information on the conference.

The April 2005 Conference on Vietnamese American Experience

On Friday, April 22, 2005 the Center sponsored a celebration of the Vietnamese-American experience in the United States featuring readings by Vietnamese-American writers and poets, a panel discussion of Vietnamese-American experiences in America, and a screening of Victor Vu's film, First Morning. The conference program is available here. For an interview with Victor Vu, click here .